Carnival Cruises and older folks

[Mrs f.]

I saw that the Carnival Sunshine is supposed to start sailing again from Charleston in January.  When we sailed on Carnival 40 years ago, it was a very big party ship.  Is it still that way?  Do they get many retirees?  It's close to where I am now.

[versuco]

We are "older folks" (68 & 75) and we sail a lot with Carnival.  We always have a great time and have never experienced out of control partyers on board.  I say go for it!  Just avoid shorter cruises during Spring break.

[sanmarcosman]

The Sunshine is sailing some 10 day cruises to the eastern Caribbean and we have one booked for 2023. We expect fewer school age children on a 10 day sailing. You may want to look at your 10 day options for a more mature crowd. 

[Mrs f.]

25 minutes ago, versuco said:

We are "older folks" (68 & 75) and we sail a lot with Carnival.  We always have a great time and have never experienced out of control partyers on board.  I say go for it!  Just avoid shorter cruises during Spring break.

That's what I thought

[Fla Mike]

45 minutes ago, versuco said:

We are "older folks" (68 & 75) and we sail a lot with Carnival.  We always have a great time and have never experienced out of control partyers on board.  I say go for it!  Just avoid shorter cruises during Spring break.

 

Same for us...even on shorter cruises!

[Djptcp]

DH and I are 72 and 71 and sail on Carnival all the time. We avoid spring breaks,  plus summers and holidays when we know there will be a lot of kids.  There are party people on Carnival for sure, but more so on the 4-5 day cruises.

 

We also cruise a lot on Holland America, my preferred cruise line as it does have a different demographic from Carnival. The ships are more elegant and the food is much better. We sail on Carnival because we live close to Tampa (40 minutes) and Port Canaveral (90 minutes) and it's just more convenient than HAL's closest port which is Port Everglades (aboout 3 hours away).

[nlktx49]

We're 72 and 73, cruise a lot - or used to! Lots of older folks on board, I'd say it's pretty evenly divided between young people, middle-aged, and older. My only advice is to sail when school is in session unless you like hordes of kids running wild. And don't cruise end of May when college kids graduate and are determined to celebrate to the max on a cruise. October through early April is when we cruise, fares are usually less then, too. Go for it!

[urbanhawk]

As an "older" adult, I've noticed that the cruises to Alaska have less of a party atmosphere, overall. People go on these cruises to see the flora, fauna, and glaciers, as well as the coastal communities/history of the gold rush, etc.

[firefly333]

Some blogger said he was in his 40s and felt like the youngest person on board. With so many kids not vaccinated.. cruises are a older crowd than usual. 

 

I dont remember seeing any kids on my cruise. 

[sunonfire]

For some unknown reason the Spirit class ships that sail from Tampa attract an older demographic. One cruise we were told the median age was 55. The next cruise there were even more seniors. They weren’t even that many from Florida. It looked like a Holland America cruise. HAL was sailing out of Tampa for awhile. They could not fill the ships because the prices were too high. I think those HAL passengers (including me) tried Carnival and liked it. We only sail on Carnival Spirit class ships out of Tampa.

[jsglow]

We're 'upper middle aged'.  We enjoy it.  As others have said, we generally avoid summer, Spring Break, etc.  I've never found it to be too rowdy and, in fact, enjoy the energy.

[silversneakers]

2 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

I saw that the Carnival Sunshine is supposed to start sailing again from Charleston in January.  When we sailed on Carnival 40 years ago, it was a very big party ship.  Is it still that way?  Do they get many retirees?  It's close to where I am now.

Try to stay away from summer, spring break or holidays and you will be okay.  Remember Carnival's market is family and that includes children.  We just don't prefer to sail during summer, spring break or school holidays.

[sunonfire]

If you are sailing from Port Canaveral you also need to avoid the weeks before and after school holidays and spring breaks. We were on a RCCL cruise 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. The cruise that was prior to ours had 1500 children.

[firefly333]

48 minutes ago, sunonfire said:

If you are sailing from Port Canaveral you also need to avoid the weeks before and after school holidays and spring breaks. We were on a RCCL cruise 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. The cruise that was prior to ours had 1500 children.

Not recently since covid I'd bet?

[skrufy]

3 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

I saw that the Carnival Sunshine is supposed to start sailing again from Charleston in January.  When we sailed on Carnival 40 years ago, it was a very big party ship.  Is it still that way?  Do they get many retirees?  It's close to where I am now.

We are retirees and have sailed Carnival for 17 years. Stay away from the 3,4, and 5 day cruises. This is where you find the partners. Holidays attract lots of kids. 7 day cruises attract young to old but are not wild party cruises. The longer cruises, 10-14 days you will see an older demographic and less kids. Our preference is a 14 day cruise.

[vamartha]

 We are 62 and 69 and exclusively sail Carnival. We sail when school is in session, mainly in the fall to early winter and try to book longer cruises.  Kids is 100% the reason we book this way and it works well for us.

[RGEDad]

I recently booked a Carnival cruise out of Galveston. 10 day cruise outside of Kiddo's vacations periods. Booked the Carnival Dream as it was out of Galveston (we can drive to there), had a few ports/stops we liked, and was - relatively - inexpensive.

I have never cruised with Carnival, and it is been probably 25 years for DW since she did. Now in our upper 60's and mostly cruise with HAL for a number of years. I was about to book on Deck 5 cause that is always a safe deck for noise control on the HAL ships we cruise, but I happened to look at the Dream's deck plan and I was right on top of a Calente Dance Club that DID NOT OPEN TILL 11PM. Yikes - never seen a club open-up that late on HAL. We are usually well in bed by that time. Moved up a deck quickly. 

It will be interesting to see the difference between the two lines, both of which are owned by CCL.

[AK2CA]

I'm in my late 50's and don't mind Carnival at all...even on the shorter cruises.  I like eating dinner in the main dining room or restaurants which seems to have fewer kids say than the buffet.  I also like the Serenity Adult Only section if I'm not hanging out on the balcony of my cabin.  

[BlerkOne]

https://carnival-news.com/2011/08/19/talk-about-a-milestone-cruise-longtime-carnival-guest-celebrates-100th-birthday-during-53rd-‘fun-ship’-cruise/

 

[nlktx49]

11 hours ago, RGEDad said:

I recently booked a Carnival cruise out of Galveston. 10 day cruise outside of Kiddo's vacations periods. Booked the Carnival Dream as it was out of Galveston (we can drive to there), had a few ports/stops we liked, and was - relatively - inexpensive.

I have never cruised with Carnival, and it is been probably 25 years for DW since she did. Now in our upper 60's and mostly cruise with HAL for a number of years. I was about to book on Deck 5 cause that is always a safe deck for noise control on the HAL ships we cruise, but I happened to look at the Dream's deck plan and I was right on top of a Calente Dance Club that DID NOT OPEN TILL 11PM. Yikes - never seen a club open-up that late on HAL. We are usually well in bed by that time. Moved up a deck quickly. 

It will be interesting to see the difference between the two lines, both of which are owned by CCL.

20 cruises with Carnival, 5 more booked. Go out of Galveston, really enjoy it. So glad you discovered the location of your cabin before you were on the ship! The only other line we've cruised was a Princess cruise we won. You've heard the old saying "Cruising is for the newly wed and the nearly dead?" We didn't see any newly weds on this cruise. My husband and I are in our early 70's and were probably among the youngest people on board. The ship and amenities were nice enough but the atmosphere was oppressive. We're not party animals, but the vibe of a Carnival ship is so different, so lively and fun and enjoyable. I do hope you find this to be the case on your first - but not last! - cruise with Carnival.

[originalgeek]

We are 57 and 65 and have loved every Carnival cruise we've been on (5 so far with 6 and 7 booked for next year).  We only discovered how much we liked cruising about 7 years ago after our son and DIL convinced us to try one and now it's our favorite way to vacation.  

 

Then again, I still regularly go see underground death metal bands at little clubs so maybe I'm  not the best indicator.

[Tapi]

21 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

 Is it still that way?  Do they get many retirees?  It's close to where I am now.

In my opinion sailing on Carnival is more about state of mind than physical age. Some people never "outgrow" Carnival, no matter what their age is. They'd rather enjoy the livelier, casual atmosphere that Carnival provides than the more sedate, quieter atmosphere provided by cruise lines geared towards more senior cruisers. 

 

You will not see as many retirees as on other cruise lines, but the ones you do see will most likely be there to have the kind of fun that Carnival delivers. 

[ARcruisin2]

4 hours ago, nlktx49 said:

20 cruises with Carnival, 5 more booked. Go out of Galveston, really enjoy it. So glad you discovered the location of your cabin before you were on the ship! The only other line we've cruised was a Princess cruise we won. You've heard the old saying "Cruising is for the newly wed and the nearly dead?" We didn't see any newly weds on this cruise. My husband and I are in our early 70's and were probably among the youngest people on board. The ship and amenities were nice enough but the atmosphere was oppressive. We're not party animals, but the vibe of a Carnival ship is so different, so lively and fun and enjoyable. I do hope you find this to be the case on your first - but not last! - cruise with Carnival.

THIS^^^^

you nailed it... "atmosphere was oppressive" perfectly describes our last Princess cruise. 

Picture the pool deck on a sea day on Carnival...hopping with a celebratory energy, right?

Now picture it with the jumbo-tron showing a loop of a crackling fire in a fireplace and the only other people out there were wrapped up in towels and blankets sleeping . Food had no salt and less seasoning than my mom's assisted living facility.  Pretty much sums up the mood for the whole week. 😴

I talked my DH into a do over on Carnival a few months later... when we were in the atrium the first sea day and the Dr Seuss parade came through and everyone joined in singing, dancing and cheering for the kids... I looked at him, threw up my arms and said "My people!"

[Joebucks]

Just like anything in life, the internet/people over-exaggerate to find negativity. They make it sound like it's nothing but a giant frat party. I don't think I've been on a cruise that was more than 5% of this type (and even that I think is an over-exaggeration). 

[BTromboneFrack]

We are in our early 60's and my wife uses a walker.   We've sailed Carnival and Disney most of the time.   Since our kids have now moved out, (and Disney got to be REALLY expensive), we now are with  Carnival and have always enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and the wide variety of people you see on Carnival  While we don't party hard, we enjoy watching the kids and adults enjoying themselves.   I once was speaking to a guy on the balcony of his Holland American ship and he asked us what we was going to happen on our Carnival ship that night.   I told him that since it was New Years Eve, we'd probably have parties going until 2 or 3.   He told us that he wished he was on our ship, because it gets real quiet on his after 10 PM.